Prevalence of slow heart rates in chronic Chagas' disease.
The prevalence of slow heart rate was investigated among 222 patients with Chagas' disease, 50 normal subjects, and 55 patients with non-chagasic heart failure. In any decade of life the basal heart rate of patients with chagasic heart failure was always significantly lower (P less than 0.001) than the basal heart rate of non-chagasic heart failure patients, and also lower than the basal heart rate of normal subjects. There were no significant differences between chagasic patients without heart failure and normal subjects. It is concluded that patients with heart failure of chagasic etiology show slow heart rates.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001919:Bradycardia / Q000209:etiology*; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged